Is Our Insanely Picky Government Overreach Driving Us Bananas?

THROWBACK THURSDAY

This story was originally published in June 2009

Woody Allen's films have always been distinctive. His early films reveal a clever eccentric whose unexpected juxtapositions make it impossible not to laugh. In his 1971 film Bananas, the early scene with Howard Cosell announcing a presidential assassination in a Latin American banana republic, as if it were an Ali fight, is so over the top... it works. I'm smiling as I write this because it's still hilarious as I replay it in my mind. 

There are, of course, many memorable scenes in that film with favorites that include the courtroom spoofs and the guerrillas in training. 

In this blog note wanted to draw attention to an unforgettable scene late in the film where the revolutionaries have overthrown the arbitrary rule of the dictators. All the citizens have been lined up to hear the new rules announced. One of these new rules is the requirement that everyone must regularly change their underwear. "To enforce this rule everyone will be required to wear their underwear on the outside." 

 

"Just checking to make sure you have your underwear on."

So it was with great amusement that I read an Associated Press story last night about a new law passed in Brooksville, Fla.... Workers Must Wear Underwear. Evidently when this story crossed the wire it turned many others' heads as well because a quick Google search shows more than 300 newspaper editors have picked up the account.
 
I sort of understand dress codes in the work place. But this story underscores the problems that ensue when legislators attempt to turn common sense into laws, regulations or codes. In this instance, city workers are required to use deodorant. How, might we ask, will this be enforced? If you are digging ditches and it's ninety degrees in the shade with 100% humidity, is there a sweat-meter that will measure if your underarms are sufficiently schlocked with Right Guard. I can see a great PR campaign here... "Right Guard keeps city employees out of jail with a free Xtreme Clear Power Gel Arctic Refresh."
 
But that underwear clause is what has me confused. Who will be the enforcer? Will all men have to keep their flies open so we can see that they are properly suited for work? Apparently Bananas was more relevant than we realized.

* * *

 

Kudos to Reason magazine for their Brickbats awards highlighting government actions that are excessively stupid, as well as all the other stories about government overreach.

Examples of other stupid laws abound. You can Google "Stupid Laws" and find a wealth of material. In Missouri it is illegal to drive with an uncaged bear in your car. In North Dakota it is illegal to serve beer and pretzels at the same time. (Probably has something to do with the animosity toward Germans in WWI.)  In NYC kids can't have a lemonade stand without a permit and it takes 4 to 6 months to get one. So much for teaching children the basics of entrepreneurship.

For the fun of it, here is a 12-page list of silly laws still on the books in our various states. 

Is It Real or Just Our Imaginations? 20 Quotes About Progress

"The doctor will see you now."

Progress is an interesting word. Has the human race been making progress? When we look at the breakthroughs in medicine these past couple hundred years, it's amazing. When a mad dog with rabies bit someone, the suffering was excruciating. Until Louis Pasteur.  

Just over two hundred years ago trained medical doctors used to "bleed" you. That is, they slit your wrists to get the bad blood out of your system. Sometimes they used leeches for the same purpose, or man-made devices designed to emulate them.

98 years ago Calvin Coolidge, Jr. got a blister on his toe while playing tennis. The toe got infected and the infection killed him. They didn't have Neosporin yet. In short, progress in the medical field has been remarkable.

On the other hand, look at the technological advances: space shuttles, microchips, thumb drives, microwave ovens, robotics, the Internet. 

Then again, is it progress that we have nuclear and chemical weapons that can wipe out the human race? Our track record as societies with regards to being able to get along makes one wonder if we might even be going backwards. Drug addiction and all forms of self-destruction abound in what is supposed to be an advanced "civilized" society.

So, the theme is progress. What's really going on? Here are 20 quotes to ponder, along with a few imponderables. 

QUOTES ABOUT PROGRESS

The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable man persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man.

--George Bernard Shaw

Progress might have been all right once, but it has gone on too long.
--Ogden Nash

The Difficult is that which can be done immediately; the Impossible that which takes a little longer.
--George Santayana 

The difficult is what takes a little time; the impossible is what takes a little longer.
--Fridtjof Nansen

We stand today at a crossroads: One path leads to despair and utter hopelessness. The other leads to total extinction. Let us hope we have the wisdom to make the right choice.
--Woody Allen

Without deviation, progress is not possible.
--Frank Zappa

It's not so much what you have to learn if you accept weird theories, it's what you have to unlearn.
--Isaac Asimov

What we call progress is the exchange of one nuisance for another nuisance.
--Henry Havelock Ellis

Change is one thing, progress is another. Change is scientific, progress is ethical. Change is indubitable, whereas progress is a matter of controversy.
--Bertrand Russell

Restlessness and discontent are the first necessities of progress. 

--Thomas Edison

All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as being self-evident. 

--Arthur Schopenhauer

The technology life cycle has three stages: Hype, disillusionment, and application. 

--Bob Lewis

The science of today is the technology of tomorrow.
--Edward Teller

All progress is based upon a universal, innate desire on the part of every organism to live beyond its income.
--Samuel Butler

Progress, far from consisting in change, depends on retentiveness. Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.
--George Santayana

The most damaging phrase in the language is, "It's always been done that way."
--Rear Admiral Grace Hopper

So much havoc has optimism wrought in this world that pessimism appears not only a legitimate way of looking at things but a moral duty.
--Christopher Spranger

Good judgment comes from experience and experience comes from bad judgment.
--Fred Brooks

Daring ideas are like chessmen moved forward; they may be beaten, but they may start a winning game.
--Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

What we anticipate seldom occurs, what we least expected generally happens.
--Benjamin Disraeli

* * * 

Round and round it goes, where it stops, nobody knows.

Woody Allen's Cafe Society... No Sizzle, and No Steak Either, But Some Noteworthy Elements

As most people who follow the career of Woody Allen know, at a certain point in time he veered from producing comedy to making more serious films, though some are spiced with comedic elements. Another way of saying that is that his later films appear to be more reflective than mere entertainments. Case in point: his painfully pointed Match Point. 

Since we're still in the pandemic lockdown regarding our local library, we're unable to enter the building and browse the DVD selections. Therefore, we search using the online browsing app. If you search by movie title, you can find quite a few flicks that are not in the library, and thereby waste a lot of time looking. An alternate way is to search by actor and all the films featuring that actor will get listed. 

I just finished watching Woody Allen's Cafe Society, starring (most prominently) Jesse Eisenberg and Steve Carell. Essentially, it is a movie about love triangles, against a backdrop of high society Hollywood and New York.

Jesse Eisenberg (Bobby) is the central character in this movie about a young man who leaves New York to get an education with his uncle, Phil Stern (Steve Carell) in 1930s Hollywood. Eisenberg struggles with the challenge of being at home in Hollywood, but through his experience meets and falls in love with his uncle's secretary. His uncle, has similarly been smitten, and Penelope choose the richer, successful Hollywood agent. 

As one of the losers on the love triangle (Steve Carell's wife is the other loser) Bobby goes back to New York, and takes on a primary role at his brother's hot nightclub. As it happens, he meets another love of his life, who coincidentally is named Penelope. Their amorous relationship results in her becoming pregnant and ultimately married.

The parallel story of his brother the gangster becomes a vehicle to insert ethical issues into a somewhat less complicated story. Love triangles and infidelity are almost commonplace, so a backstory about a brother who is a thug helps add a dimension.

Noteworthy Elements
There are a number of features in this film that tell you this is a Woody Allen film. Here are just a few.

Love for New York
Woody Allen was born in New York, and his passion for the city of his birth is hard to conceal. Manhattan was an opus of sorts. Here in Cafe Society it is barely concealed.

Philosophical Ponderings
The manner in which Woody Allen weaves theological questions and philosophical digressions into his films is quite intriguing. Over and over again we find characters debating conflicting views on ethical matters. 

Recurring Themes
High society glamour, jazz, Jewishness and gangsters are frequently inserted into Woody Allens films. Rule one to young writers is, "Write about what you know." High society, jazz and Jewishness are all facets of who he is. Where do the gangsters fit into his life experience? It probably doesn't matter, but serves as a method for dissecting some related ethical issues.

Witty Dialogue
As usual the characters have a lot of good lines. For some reason, though things feel emotionally barren. We've met these argumentative Jewish parents in an earlier Woody Allen film or two, so it almost feels like a cliche.

* * * 

There is a sense in which I was reminded of Robert Redford's screen adaptation of A River Runs Through It. In that film it seemed to me that Brad Pitt was chosen to play the role Redford would have played had he been a younger man. Redford also narrated the story. In this case, Woody Allen narrates, and Eisenberg is selected to play the role Allen would have played. In fact, in the early part of the move Bobby even sounded like Woody Allen. I don't think I was imagining it.

My original title for this movie review was going to be Woody Allen's Cafe Society... "Meh." At IMDB.com even the reviewers who liked it didn't go gaga over it. Yes, the exotic quality of high society life is well done, but we have seen that before, too. Hollywood is very much in love with itself, though Allen does have. Bobby and his uncle deliver a few barbs about it all.

Baby Boomer Death Clock

One of my favorite Woody Allen lines is, "I'm not afraid of death. I just don't want to be there when it happens." 

Death is a subject that nearly every philosopher, playwright and author has touched on at one time or another. For some it is a grim subject. For others it carries a sense of hope and prospects of release from the wheel of suffering that is life. 

This afternoon as I reflected on the Covid stats that are continuously bombarding us, it made me wonder how many people are simply dying all the time anyways. That is, earlier this year I became aware that 10,000 baby boomers are turning 65 every day. That is a lot of people. Naturally it made me wonder how many are making an exit from this mortal coil each day.

I asked Google, and guess what? There's a website that has an answer. 5,004 baby boomers will have died when this day is over.

The website, incendar.com, has stats for what percentage of boomers have already died, what percentage are alive, and what year the baby boomer generation will be officially extinct. (2086, if you wish to know.)

Here are a few quotes about death, followed by a link to all the stats for our parents' generation, Gen X and Millennials. But first, a few quotes.

* * * *

That last day does not bring extinction to us, but change of place.
~Cicero

* * * *

Life's race well run,
Life's work well done,
Life's crown well won,
Now comes rest.
--Epitaph, President James Garfield

* * * *

"Do not go gentle into that good night."
--Dylan Thomas

* * * *

"Our soul’s perfection is our life’s purpose; any other purpose, keeping death in mind, has no substance."
--Leo Tolstoy

* * * * 

OK, here are some stats:

U.S.Baby Boomer Generation
Population Death Clock
1946-1964

US Baby Boomers Dead
26.0878252 %

Total 85,358,000
Alive 63,089,954
Dead 22,268,046

Death every 17.3 Seconds
5,004 Deaths Today
or 1.8 million this year.

Extinction: 2086

"Then darkness took me, and I strayed out of thought and time, 

and I wandered far on roads that I will not tell. 

Naked I was sent back - for a brief time, until my task is done."

--Gandalf, in Lord of the Rings, Book 2

And here's the link: 

https://incendar.com/baby_boomer_deathclock.php

Woody Allen's Zelig: An Artful Tapestry of History and Psychology

"I love baseball. You know, it doesn't have to mean anything. It's just very beautiful to watch."
--Leonard Zelig

THE FILM opens with footage of a 1920s ticker tape parade.

Cut to Susan Sontag
"He was the phenomenon of the 20s. At that time he was as well-known as Lindbergh. It's really quite astonishing."

Cut to ticker tape parade.

Cut to Irving Howe
"His story reflected the nature of our civilization, the character of our times. Yet it was only one man's story and all the themes of our culture were there. Heroism, will, things like that… but when you look back on that it was very strange."

Cut to parade.

Cut to Saul Bellow
"Well, it's ironic to see how quickly he has faded from memory. Considering what an astounding record he made. He was of course very amusing but at the same time touched a nerve in people, perhaps in a way which they would prefer not to be touched. It certainly is a very bizarre story."

Cut to Roaring Twenties scenes… flappers tap dancing, Charleston playing, trolley cars.

Voiceover: The year is 1928. America, enjoying a decade of unequalled prosperity…

* * * *
THIS REVIEW CONTAINS A SPOILER

So begins Woody Allen's 1983 documentary about a man so obsessed with fitting in that he becomes like whoever he is with, Zelig the human chameleon. With Chinese, he becomes Chinese, with Native Americans he becomes Native American, with his doctors he becomes a doctor.

In addition to its stellar script there were two features of the film that especially made it an achievement. First, was the manner in which inserted Woody Allen and Mia Farrow into real historical footage of the Twenties. Zelig appears with F. Scott Fitzgerald, Babe Ruth, Woodrow Wilson and many others including Der Führer at a Hitler rally in Germany. Second, was the manner in which the footage shot in the present was made to look and feel like those scratchy, B&W historical reels.

I vaguely recall that what Woody Allen did to get that "look" was to take the processed film that had been shot, put it on the ground and walk on it so that it became scratchy in a random sort of way.

* * * *

Zelig undergoing treatment with Dr. Fletcher

For screenwriters the film is worth studying as a model for producing mockumentaries. You can see (above) how quickly and effectively the story gets set up.

Though only 79 minutes in length, the film was a groundbreaker. You can see how Zelig is echoed in the blockbuster Forrest Gump (Tom Hanks) 11 years later in which Gump's life interests with a whole series of presidents and historical events.

My favorite scenes in Zelig are when he undergoes psychoanalysis with Dr. Eudora Fletcher (Mia Farrow). The breakthrough occurs when she admits that she is not a doctor, that she has in fact been faking it. He become confused because this means he's faking it, too.

* * * *

Leonard Zelig with Dr. Fletcher. (Movie still from imdb.com)

Though the story becomes preposterous, Woody Allen has done a masterful job of crafting a story addressing our human tendency to want to fit in, to belong to a larger tribe, to not feel isolated from the group. If we give up who we really are in order to fit in, then we will lose that which is most essential and fundamental: our true selves.

If you've not seen this little gem, I heartily recommend it.

* * * *
Related Links
Ten years ago Chinese artist Liu Bolin made news when he began protesting the actions of his government for shutting down his art studio in 2005. The Chinese government wanted him to "fit in" and so now he began doing paintings of himself in such a manner that he does blend in... with his surroundings.

Liu Bolin, hiding in plain view at a meat market. "Fitting in."

Here are some Liu Bolin links that tell this story.
https://liubolinstudio.com/news/
http://www.artnet.com/artists/liu-bolin/
http://www.galerieparisbeijing.com/artist/liu-bolin/
Zelig at imdb.com 

Throwback Thursday: Hitler Discovers Dylan Won Nobel Prize for Literature

I don't recall who did this kind of thing first. Woody Allen's 1966 romp What's Up, Tiger Lily was a hilarious early version of the form, dubbing English over a foreign language film.

There's nothing quite like the unexpected, well-executed. This piece was published October 13 last fall, very shortly after the announcement had been made. Someone was very clever, though actually the same segment was published four months earlier with another set of subtitles in reaction to Donald Trump winning the Republican nomination.

I'm not sure who created this, but for sure they deserve an award of their own. Best short documentary? The script is rich with gems. The Führer discovers that a Jewish singer-songwriter from the Midwest has just won the Nobel Prize for Literature.

(Note: A pair of F-bombs make this a PG-13, fwiw.)

Meantime, life goes on all around you. Catch a laugh when you can.

Handwriting Matters

Have you ever had the experience in which you couldn't read someone's handwriting? Perhaps it was a note from your spouse, or maybe even a note from your boss. Hmmm. You're at the grocery store and you have to pick up... what?

I've even had the experience where I couldn't decipher my own handwriting. (I sometimes get up in the night and write notes to myself, like this one. In the morning a few of these scribbles appear to be hieroglyphics.)

One of my favorite scenes in Woody Allen's Take the Money and Run involves poor handwriting.  The hapless Virgil Starkwell, played by Allen, attempts to rob a bank. He hands a note to the teller. She has trouble deciphering it. "You have a gub?" He tries to explain that he has a gun. She disagrees and calls another teller over. "Does this look like 'gub' or 'gun'?" The second teller says it looks like "gun" ... "But what does 'abt' mean?" And so it goes.

Because handwriting matters, I included a chapter on this topic in my new book, Writing Exercises: How to Teach Writing and Prepare Your Favorite Students for College, Life and Everything Else. Here are a few points I made there.

* * * *

Good handwriting is becoming lost in our modern society. With the advent of online news forums and digital books, print and concrete handwriting skills may seem unnecessary. Computers and other devices are replacing the pen.

Developing good handwriting, however, is still important for a variety of reasons. Good handwriting shows courtesy toward those reading what you write. It’s also something of a necessity when filling out a job application. And, if the teacher can’t read the pupil’s work, then there's going to be a problem when going over it together.

* * * *

Since the beginning of literacy, handwriting proficiency has developed and changed in lockstep with changes in society and technology. Some forms of handwriting are artistic, such as calligraphy or graffiti. Others are more utilitarian, such as the near-illegible scrawl used in a doctor’s office. All handwriting, being the medium in which a message is conveyed, is affected by both the writer and the reader. For example, a dinner invitation written in pristine calligraphy will be received differently than one written in a sloppy scrawl. Each note will elicit a different response. While one note may imply a formal dinner with suit and tie, the latter indicates that jeans and a t-shirt will be adequate. In this way, it is important to be aware of handwriting and the affect it has on others.

Furthermore, it is courteous for handwritten messages to be easily legible to the recipient. Your student will likely one day secure a job in which written notes may be a necessity. Handwritten notes are still an important form of communication in most employment settings. For example, you may be a boss scribbling written corrections on a proposal. If your notes can't be accurately interpreted, the proposal may end up conveying misinformation with the result that your company loses an important contract. Developing good handwriting throughout an academic career could be very important in future careers.

Developing good handwriting is also useful in developing linear thinking. When using a computer, it is easy to edit the format of sentences and whole paragraphs with a series of clicks. Word order is entirely flexible. Conversely, handwriting with pen and paper requires the mind to sequentially order the thoughts and plan further ahead when writing, sharpening critical thinking skills. This type of brain development is not present when solely typing on a computer. In fact, it turns out that current brain research is affirming that writing by hand is important.

At the same time, maintaining good handwriting forces students to be disciplined in writing out their ideas. While computers maintain pristine uniformity with absolutely no effort on the part of the writer, precision in handwriting requires both attention and discipline. (This is not to imply that good writing using a computer is effortless. It only resolves the legibility issue.)

In these ways, it is easy to see that handwriting is an important skill to develop in the student. Here are a few tips to help improve handwriting:

1. Practice. Begin when your students are young. Our writing exercises here assume the student has already developed a certain measure of legibility. If not, have the student make a conscious effort to improve this skill.

2. Develop good handwriting muscles. The muscles that should primarily be used in handwriting are muscles in the forearm and back. Too much finger muscle use in handwriting will produce small, cramped handwriting as the writer painstakingly draws each letter individually.

3. Strive for uniformity. The key to good handwriting is consistency. If the student really needs help in this area it may be necessary to have a separate notebook for the students to practice each letter until they can easily maintain a uniform shape for each. I know it sounds tedious and boring, but there’s a lifetime payoff.

* * * *

The book was written to help homeschoolers become better writers, but much of the content applies to all kinds of schooling. And if your student has absolutely atrocious handwriting even after working at it, you may take this as a sign that he or she has a future in medicine. For sure, don't encourage them to go into bank robbing.

Meantime, life goes on... Read any good books lately? 

Flat-Footed Flatheads

Part of my evening reading the past few weeks has included Ron Brotherton's Suspicious Minds: Why We Believe Conspiracy Theories. So I found the following email from a friend more than a little intriguing.

We live in an interesting period of human history. One of the ruling philosophies of the Boomer generation has been "Question Authority." And because of our knowledge of history, of propaganda and the media (cf. Edward Bernays and Marshall McLuhan) we're not without foundation to take this stance, up to a point. It's the age of suspicion.

Being suspicious is one thing, but when we distrust everything it can put people into some pretty precarious places. Advances in modern medicine have eliminated many of the diseases that ravaged communities in olden days. In earlier times there were reasons families were large. Many of those children were never going to reach adulthood. But now, with conspiracy theories surrounding the very vaccinations that have made us safe from polio, small pox and other deadly diseases we're seeing a rise in some of these diseases that had been nearly eradicated.

Brotherton doesn't mock and dismiss people who believe conspiracy theories. His book's aim is not to catalog all those rabbit holes. Rather, he attempts to present new research on how the brain works and why we tend to be so susceptible.

This past week I once again watched Woody Allen's Zelig, a fictional documentary about a "chameleon man" who becomes like whoever he is around. It's a clever psychological study about our efforts to fit in. While serving as a masterful piece of entertainment it simultaneously affirmed one of the basic reasons the masses are susceptible to many of the most absurd assertions.

Here's a portion of yesterday's  email, which the writer titled, Flat-Footed Flatheads.

There's this growing phenomenon occurring on YouTube promoting a flat earth theory. They believe the Earth is a flat disk with a dome over the top they call the "firmament" that is described in Genesis of the Bible... separating the waters above from the waters below. On this dome the universe is projected to us including the sun and all the stars. Another claim about Antarctica is it's a wall of ice that goes around the entire edge of the disk. Underneath are the usual layers of earth, crust, mantle, core, etc. They also claim that the UN logo is an actual map of flat Earth.

As creative as it sounds, it's laughable how serious the followers are. I'm not going to explain why the earth is a sphere. Anyone with a couple of thumbs can Google it. What I am going to discuss is the nature of conspiracy theories and the people who follow them. I can be charged as guilty for being amongst this crowd for a sizable portion of my 37 years. The reason I fell into this stuff was I felt hopelessly disenfranchised as a disabled person. There was a theory and explanation for every injustice and corruption present in the world. It's almost a religious experience, the level of catharsis these theories bring to a lonely tortured person. So I get it. I understand why people fall into this tomfoolery.

This is where I have to turn my back on these people. There's definitely something bizarre going on in a possibly sinister way. 

* * * *
Some of my friend's observations here and Brotherton's assessment of conspiracy followers dovetails with Eric Hoffer's invetigative analysis and conclusions regarding people swept up in mass movements. His book The True Believer is a classic. Here are a few quotes.

"When our individual interests an prospects do not seem worth living for, we are in desperate need of something apart from us to live for." p. 24

"When people are ripe for mass movement, they are usually ripe for any effective movement, and not solely one with a particular doctrine or program." p. 25

"A rising mass movement attracts and holds a following not by its doctrine and promises but by the refuge it offers from the anxieties, barrenness and meaninglessness of an individual existence." p. 44

"The effectiveness of a doctrine does not come from its meaning, but from its certitude." p. 76

This should be enough to chew on for today. Let's see what happens next.

Throwback Thursday: Woody Allen Weaves An Uncommon Tragedy in Cassandra's Dream

Just finished watching Woody Allen’s most recent release, Cassandra’s Dream, starring Colin Farrell and Ewan McGregor, among others. There are many great facets of the film, including the superfine way Allen creates fully developed characters with a minimal number of brushstrokes. He’s a master in this regard.

A follow up to Match Point, the film has the same seriousness, setting (England), ironies, and mix of characters with their different generational viewpoints and motivations. The characters are transparent to the viewer, but not to one another. In this regard, the screen writing is brilliant.

It is a story of two brothers -- and their love interests as well as family ties -- who have character flaws. Each has dreams that require money, and each seems intent on escaping the responsibilities of the family business to pursue what are patently foolish paths. At one point the brothers reminded me of some of Elmore Leonard’s criminals who are both smart and foolish. The outcome of the film was from the beginning self-evident, why could they not see it coming? Yet people do these kinds of things all the time. The music track alone tells you this is a tragedy and going to have a bad ending.

I did have a problem with the Philip Glass soundtrack on one level. Yes, it worked well in this film, but for me it evoked The Illusionist. If someone pointed this out (and someone must have) I can picture Allen saying, “That’ll work. Not that many people will have seen both films.” Or something to that effect.

That may be the one weakness of the film, not the music, but the decision to not push something to another level. Mr. Allen’s philosophy of film making is not to produce great art. It is to get the stories out. He is undoubtedly filled with stories, and simply doesn’t waste time on time consuming details. Or so it seems.

For this reason, despite the fabulous acting and great dialogue, crisp character development and tight story, the movie might not receive its share of critical acclaim. But then, in reading his book Woody Allen on Woody Allen, he owns up to the fact that he is not striving to be Bergman or Fellini. He does not wish the comparison to be even made. He is simply a man who loved the movies, and who has lived out his dream of being able to make movies. Ultimately, he probably doesn’t really care what the critics think, which is a nice place to be if you can get there.

In the end, I would have re-shot at least two or three moments in the film that should have been re-shot to “get it right.” Though maybe in the grand scheme of things it didn’t matter. There is much to like here with its echoes of Greek tragedy and other classic moments in literature. (The scene in the bedroom felt eerily close to the problem Raskalnikov encountered in Crime & Punishment, undoubtedly intentional.)

The film has sensuousness as a theme with almost none of the usual Hollywood demonstrativeness. It hints, rather than reveals.

The title for the film comes from the name of a boat which the brothers buy. The name Cassandra is taken from mythical Greek tragedy. Cassandra was loved by Apollo, but ended up being cursed by him when she did not return his love. Her gift of being able to foresee the future was forever a source of pain and frustration for her. The viewer of this film, like Cassandra, knows from the first that things will turn out bad, but can do nothing to stop it.

As is often the case, “The best laid plans of mice and men do often go awry.” Or to quote a maxim of my own, “We tend to get what we want, but we usually get more than we bargained for.”

THIS REVIEW ORIGINALLY APPEARED IN JULY 2008

ThrowbackThursday: My Fine Feathered Friends (A Reading List)

One of the programs that I regularly listen to on the radio is The Daily Circuit on Minnesota Public Radio, primarily because that's what's on as I am in my car heading for lunch somewhere. It's a show that talks about books. The show's host Kerri Miller regularly has authors as guests and frequently opens up the phone lines for listeners' suggestions. 

This being Throwback Thursday, I thought it a good day to resurrect a 2008 blog entry in which I shared a book list of my own. It doesn't include more recent readings, but regular followers of this blog will find periodic reviews of current gems.

My Fine Feathered Friends

Woody Allen called his book Without Feathers a comic response to Emily Dickinson's statement, "Hope is the thing with feathers that perches on the soul..." In addition to the implied nakedness, he likewise signals the absence of hope in his heart. One might call him a tragic luminary.

Here's another poem by Emily Dickinson, about books along with short reading list of some personal favorites. May we never quit being a nation of readers.

There is no frigate like a book

To take us lands away,

Nor any coursers like a page

of prancing poetry.

This traverse may the poorest take

Without oppress of toll;

How frugal is the chariot
That bears a human soul.

The Short List

Here's a short list of some of my favorite Novellas and Shorter, Book-Length Fictional Works that have great power and are worthy of any reading list...

Death in Venice, Thomas Mann

The Tenth Man, Graham Greene

Heart of Darkness, Joseph Conrad

Cakes & Ale, Somerset Maughm

Of Mice and Men, John Steinbeck

The Sybil, Par Lagerkvist

Barabas, Par Lagerkvist

Seize the Day, Saul Bellow

One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovitch, A. Solzhenitsyn

The Forged Coupon, Leo Tolstoy

Old Man and the Sea, Ernest Hemingway

Welcome to Hard Times, E.L.Doctorow

The Great Divorce, C.S.Lewis

Animal Farm, George Orwell

Isabelle, Andre Gide

Theseus, Andre Gide

This is a list of stories and books that made an impact on me at key points in my life...

The Secret Sharer, Joseph Conrad

The Lagoon, Joseph Conrad

Too Late the Phalarope, Alan Paton

Cyrano de Bergerac, Edmund Rostand (play)

The End of the Affair, Graham Greene

A Burnt Out Case, Graham Green

The Power and the Glory, Graham Greene

Man of La Mancha, Dale Wasserman (play)

For Whom the Bell Tolls, Ernest Hemingway

In Our Time, Ernest Hemingway (stories)

Demian, Herman Hesse

Beneath the Wheel, Herman Hesse

Martin Eden, Jack London

1984, George Orwell

Brave New World, Aldus Huxley

That Hideous Strength, C.S.Lewis

Crime & Punishment, Fyodor Dostoevski

Labyrinths, Jorge Luis Borges (stories)

Ficciones, Jorge Luis Borges (stories)

The Bet by Anton Checkov

Crimes, Misdemeaners and the Genius of Woody Allen

THIS REVIEW CONTAINS WHAT SOME PEOPLE MIGHT CONSIDER SPOILERS

Woody Allen is one of the great film makers of our generation. From the opening titles, the white letters on black background with New York jazz playing underneath, I am in. What I find rewarding in Allen's films is the manner in which he weaves the deepest issues of philosophy into an entertaining narrative. He doesn't moralize. He creates characters and tells stories.

Last week I watched Hannah and Her Sisters again and over the weekend watched Crimes and Misdemeanors. Each is fast paced with vividly drawn characters. In both there are affairs and the subsequent struggles with guilt and emotional confusion. But in the latter, the high profile Jonah Rosenthal deals with the situation in a very different manner, moving Crimes into a different class of film.

Publicly, ophthalmologist Jonah Rosenthal (Martin Landau) is a distinguished and generous gentleman in his community. Privately ha has been having an affair that goes especially bad when Dolores (Anjelica Huston) begins to interfere with his public life, threatening to expose him if he doesn’t marry her. Judah’s brother Jack is connected to the shadier side of life and helps his brother by eliminating his “problem.” Near the end of the film Jonah meets film maker Clifford Stern (Woody Allen) at some fancy occasion and they sit together in a shadowed space away from the party.

It's no accident that Crimes and Misdemeanors has a similar title to Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment. In each the man justifies his murder beforehand making it seem an absolute necessity, but afterwards the unexpected fear (of being caught0 and the guilt at having committed the horror tears him up inside.

The film is dense with sub-themes and mini-stories. One of these is Clifford's love of movies, a theme that carries through many Woody Allen films. The story of Clifford making a film about his wife's brother Lester in order to fund the project he really wants -- a documentary on philosopher Louis Levy -- strikes a chord with anyone who has worked a career to support another passion, such as photography or music.

But the central story here is Jonah's struggle to save his good name, and the lengths he's willing to go in order to do so. All throughout the film, though, we see flashbacks to a scene from Jonah's childhood, a large dining room scene with kids, teens, aunts, uncles and elders, debating morality and ethics, right and wrong. In one of the last flashbacks, Jonah the successful ophthalmologist who seems to have gotten away with murder is standing in the door listening to this ethics debate and finally enters the scene itself to ask a question. It's surprising, and silly and can't be, but it happens and it works. It's the kind of deftness in story telling that Woody Allen uses to keep the weight of Jonah's tale from becoming a burden for all of us.

So near the end of the film Jonah meets Clifford  at some fancy occasion and as they sit together in the shadows Jonah introduces himself.

Jonah: That’s what Ben told me. He said you make films.

Clifford: Yeah, but not that kind.

Jonah: I have a great murder story. … My murder story has a very strange twist.

Clifford: Yeah

Jonah: Let’s say there’s this man who is very successful. He has everything…. and after the awful deed is done he finds that he’s plagued by deep-rooted guilt. Little sparks of his religious background which he’d rejected are suddenly stirred up. He hears his father’s voice. He imagines that God is watching his every move. Suddenly it’s not an empty universe at all, but a just and moral one. And he’s violated it. Now he’s panic-stricken. He’s on the verge of a mental collapse. An inch away from confessing the whole thing to the police. And then, one morning he awakens. The sun is shining and his family is around him and mysteriously the crisis is lifted. He takes his family on a vacation to Europe and as the months pass he finds that he is not punished. In fact, he prospers. The killing gets attributed to another person, a drifter who has a number of other murders to his credit. So what the hell, one more doesn’t even matter. Now he’s scot-free. His life is completely back to normal, back to his protected world of wealth and privilege.

Clifford: Yes, but can he really ever go back?

Jonah (clearly justifying himself to the viewer, though Clifford doesn’t see it): Well, people carry sins around with them. Oh maybe once in a while he has a bad moment, but it passes. And with time it all fades.

Clifford: So then his worst beliefs are realized.

Jonah: Well, I said it was a chilling story didn’t I?

Clifford: I don’t know. I think it would be tough for somebody to live with that. Very few guys could actually live with something like that on their conscience.

Jonah: People carry awful deeds around with them. What do you expect him to do? Turn himself in? I mean, this is reality. In reality we rationalize. We deny, or we couldn’t go on living.

Clifford: Here’s what I would do. I would have him turn himself in, because then you would see, your story assumes tragic proportions because in the absence of a God or something he is forced to assume responsibility for himself. Then you have tragedy.

Jonah: But that’s fiction. That’s movies. You see too many movies. I’m talking about reality. (laughs) If you want a happy ending you should go see a Hollywood movie.

Getting away with murder is a theme Woody Allen returns to years later in less comic fashion in Match Point. With nuance, eros and drama.

What I like about Woody Allen's films, though, is the seamless manner in which he places rich pearls like this one into the story: “We define ourselves by the choices we have made. We are, in fact, the sum total of all our choices.”

Symbolism

In art history Symbolism was an actual movement in which pictorial means were used to convey allegorical meanings. Throughout art history symbolism has been used, however, especially in religious iconography.

To illustrate the difference between symbolism and representational art, picture a cave drawing with several buffalo images with a dotted line crossing a bunch of wavy lines. This representational piece is telling people where the buffalo are and how to get there. (They are across the river.) If one of the buffalo has wings and is flying above the herd, it might be some kind of early symbolic expression. ("The gods granted me an opportunity to take one.") If there is a large tripod-like creature lifting one of the buffalo and a screeching noise being emitted with a beam of light coming out disintegrating the other buffaloes, then you are looking at an early telling of War of the Worlds. Later historians would then endlessly debate whether this was Realism or Fantasy.

All this to say that symbolism is as much a part of art as metaphors are to poetry. For example, in David Bowie's Is There Life On Mars? the line, "look at those cave men go" is not referring to cave men but to lowbrow brutes having it out in a bar fight, or possibly the alienated teenager is watching a movie of such. But the words are not literal but rather metaphorical, as is Em Dickinson's line, "Hope is the thing with feathers" which Woody Allen turns around to indicate his own -- and modern man's -- existential alienation and despair with the title of his volume Without Feathers. Or he may mean he is exposing himself.

O.K., so this was a long intro to make a small point about my Lincoln paintings. The first painting, Blue Lincoln, was not really about Lincoln at all. I had read a quote somewhere that "you can't fight an international war and a civil war at the same time" and it resonated with me. I believe it was from the book Maximilian and Carlotta in which the U.S. could not defend Mexico against European incursion (a violation of the Monroe Doctrine) because it was in the throes of its own Civil War. For me this was a perfect symbol of many lives today who are battling their own inner conflicts and have unresolved issues in their hearts while also trying to carry on with their life purpose of service to the community or the world-at-large. Many people have been sidelined by internal conflicts who could be leaders of organizations in need of leadership.

The Lincoln image thus became such a symbol for me. The overarching internal conflict between good and evil, righteousness and temptation, left the president blue.

The painting Lincoln II has a brighter background, but his features are ashen. The subtitle, Portrait with One Dying Eye, is a reference to the line from Dylan's Hurricane. "The wounded guy looks up through his one dyin' eye, Says 'What'd you bring him in here for? He ain't the guy.'" The song is ultimately about injustice, as noted in the second to last verse. "To see him obviously framed couldn't help but make me feel ashamed to live in a land where justice is a game."

And so it is that presidents themselves become symbols. Martin Luther King's "I have a dream" speech was not delivered in Arlington Cemetery, land that formerly belonged to Robert E. Lee, but rather at the Lincoln Memorial. Symbols have power. Symbols resonate.

Blue Lincoln, Lincoln III (right) and Lincoln II (Portrait with One Dying Eye) will be on display this month at The Venue, 2024 West Superior Street, Duluth. Hope you get a chance to see what's happening there.

Bananas

Woody Allen's films have always been distinctive. His early films reveal a clever eccentric whose unexpected juxtapositions make it impossible not to laugh. In his 1971 film Bananas, the early scene with Howard Cosell announcing a presidential assassination in a Latin American banana republic, as if it were an Ali fight, is so over the top... it works. I'm smiling as I write this because it's still hilarious as I replay it in my mind.

There are, of course, many memorable scenes with favorites including the courtroom spoofs and the guerillas in training. But this blog note wants to draw attention to an unforgettable scene late in the film where the revolutionaries have overthrown the arbitrary rule of the dictators and now have all the peoples lined up to announce the new rules. One of these new rules is the requirement that everyone must regularly change their underwear. "To enforce this rule everyone will be required to wear their underwear on the outside."

So it was with great amusement that I read an Associated Press story last night about a new law passed in Brooksville, Fla.... Workers Must Wear Underwear. Evidently when this story crossed the wire it turned many others' heads as well because a quick Google search shows more than 300 newspaper editors have picked up the account.

I understand dress codes in the work place. But this story underscores the problems that ensue when legislators attempt to turn common sense into laws, regulations or codes. In this instance, city workers are required to use deoderant. How, might we ask, will this be enforced? If you are digging ditches and it's ninety degrees in the shade with 100% humidity, is there a sweat-meter that will measure if you are sufficently schlocked with Right Guard. I can see a great PR campaign here... "Right Guard keeps city employees out of jail with a free Xtreme Clear Power Gel Arctic Refresh."

But that underwear clause is what has me confused. Who will be the enforcer? Will all men have to keep their flies open so we can see that they are properly suited for work?

Apparently Bananas was more relevant than we realized.

Here's At Least One Facet Of Finding Your Own Voice

“It’s better to fail in originality than to succeed in imitation.” ~ Herman Melville

The novel is a classic of American literature. The high seas, Moby Dick and Ahab’s quest… and a narrator named Ishmael. Interesting name. Ishmael was Abraham’s son, the one birthed when he attempted to produce an offspring without faith in God. A son conceived with his servant woman. A son conceived illegitimately.

And years later when Isaac, the true product of faith, was born, the animosity between the descendants of Isaac and of Ishmael became a perpetual conflict, still unrelenting.

As for this story, what is the meaning behind Ishmael’s name? Is it a commentary on the futility of Captain Ahab’s insane quest? The pursuit of this great white whale destroys not only Ahab but the lives of nearly everyone involved in the mad mission. So it is that in the wake of Abraham’s actions, finding a means to father a son without God’s aid results in massive suffering and loss of life.

Abraham, according to the book of Genesis, was asked to attempt something impossible. Only God could do this impossible thing. How does that translate into Moby Dick and Captain Ahab? Should Ahab have quit the pursuit and trusted God to beach this great white whale somewhere on an island? Or have it go up a river and get stuck somewhere that it could not turn around as the whale two years ago that got itself in a mess near Sacramento?

If you have not read Moby Dick, it would make a worthy addition to your list sometime. I plowed through it when a literary friend insisted it was the greatest American novel and one of the top twenty of all time. It turned out to be a worthwhile read indeed. (In the past several days this phrase Great American Novel has already been applied to The Grapes of Wrath and The Great Gatsby in The Big Read series I’ve been listening to, so take it with a grain of salt.)

Woody Allen pays tribute to Melville’s masterpiece in the film Zelig. The film is a sparkling demonstration of Allen’s genius. When the main character, Zelig, is undergoing therapy, he confides that he has never ready Melville’s classic, but covered it up in order to “fit in,” the film’s theme (our chameleon nature) and Zelig’s root problem.

In literature and the arts, originality is the great quest. In mathematics and science, the great men are likewise driven by the quest for an original idea. Einstein’s theory of relativity reverberated throughout the culture, the power of an original idea. John Nash, in A Beautiful Mind, is mad with the passion to find and capture his own White Whale without which a Nobel prize is surely out of reach.

Back to Mr. Allen… His film making career is a perfect example of the Melville quote that opened this stream of conscious exploration. His films have repeatedly shown a fluid originality that is uniquely his own. Yet he wasn’t afraid to take chances. Sometimes the comic elements didn’t pan out, and sometimes the medium got the best of him, but when you look at the range of things he attempted, you can see he never settled for imitation or formulaic devices. He made the movies he wished to make and many have been gems with real takeaway value.

The key is finding your own voice, whether as a writer, film maker, economist or just a human being. Who are you and what is your life message?

I used to think that it was the young who need to be dedicated to originality, that youth was a time of exploration. But why limit yourself? As long as you are breathing the mind should be in inquiry mode. Life itself is a creative act. When it ceases to be so, you have ceased from really being alive.

Maybe this was Ahab's fear: To stop pursuing the dream would be to cease from living. He decided not to be a boring old hack story teller at a port town pub reliving the life he once lived. Instead, he mustered all he had and gave it another shot. Winston Churchill put it this way:

“Success is going from failure to failure with no loss of enthusiasm.”

If the dream is worthy, go for it.

32 Random Phrases from Popular Mechanics August 2008

"Randomness is too important to be left to chance." ~ Robert R. Corveyou

Whose Machine Reigns Supreme?
Taking the Scream Test
The Science of Fear
An American Passion
I’ll Try Anything
Drill It and Shoot It
The more you ask, the more we’re different.
Man, I wish I were anyplace but here.
Guys, want to take fewer trips to the bathroom at night?
Not all fishing buddies have facial hair.
Nematode Nation: Tiny worms reveal large secrets.
Use them as a concert hall – or a sanctuary.
Still haven’t rolled over your old 401(k)?
All along you told them they could change the world.
Turns out you were right.
Progress is easy to take for granted.
If you want to do great things in your world, spend some time in ours.
Unrespected Aerospace
“We look at this place as the best-kept secret in the business. We can see the future from here.”
Look First
Why is Michael Phelps the ultimate athlete?
Ditto
The King Is Back
Hands-Free Can Shaker
Fire When Ready
Primal Screamer
A Fast Bot Finds Work
The Ultimate Paint Job
Mutually Assured Saturation
Why do they make it so complicated?
Fight Back
That’s Ice Cold Common Sense

“The man who said ‘I'd rather be lucky than good’ saw deeply into life. People are afraid to face how great a part of life is dependent on luck. It's scary to think so much is out of one's control.” ~ Chris Wilton in Woody Allen's Match Point

Of this last quote and observation, it really is humbling when one considers it... beginning with your birth. Which genetic imprint you received from your father when millions were competing in the initial conception. The nation you were born into. The nurses who handled you, or mishandled. Astrologers would add at this point... which sign of the zodiac you were born under, and the time of day. The circumstances of your early years, how many siblings you shared a home with, or a room. The teachers who formed your ideas about learning, creativity, personal worth. Likes, dislikes; active, inactive. How we got our first job, and the complex factors that in subtle yet imponderable ways determine our careers, our friends and lovers, our miscellaneous adventures through space and time.

How about you? How did you become who you are? How much is choice and how much chance? Tell me what you think.

Cassandra’s Dream

Just finished watching Woody Allen’s most recent release, Cassandra’s Dream, starring Colin Farrell and Ewan McGregor, among others. There are many great facets of the film, including the superfine way Allen creates fully developed characters with a minimal number of brushstrokes. He’s a master in this regard.

A follow up to Match Point, the film has the same seriousness, setting (England), ironies, and mix of characters with their different generational viewpoints and motivations. The characters are transparent to the viewer, but not to one another. In this regard, the screen writing is brilliant.

It is a story of two brothers -- and their love interests as well as family ties -- who have character flaws. Each has dreams that require money, and each seems intent on escaping the responsibilities of the family business to pursue what are patently foolish paths. At one point the brothers reminded me of some of Elmore Leonard’s criminals who are both smart and foolish. The outcome of the film was from the beginning self-evident, why could they not see it coming? Yet people do these kinds of things all the time. The music track alone tells you this is a tragedy and going to have a bad ending.

I did have a problem with the Phillip Glass soundtrack on one level. Yes, it worked well in this film, but for me it evoked The Illusionist. If someone pointed this out (and someone must have) I can picture Allen saying, “That’ll work. Not that many people will have seen both films.” Or something to that effect.

That may be the one weakness of the film, not the music, but the decision to not push something to another level. Mr. Allen’s philosophy of film making is not to produce great art. It is to get the stories out. He is undoubtedly filled with stories, and simply doesn’t waste time on time consuming details. Or so it seems.

For this reason, despite the fabulous acting and great dialogue, crisp character development and tight story, the movie might not receive its share of critical acclaim. But then, in reading his book Woody Allen on Woody Allen, he owns up to the fact that he is not striving to be Bergman or Fellini. He does not wish the comparison to be even made. He is simply a man who loved the movies, and who has lived out his dream of being able to make movies. Ultimately, he probably doesn’t really care what the critics think, which is a nice place to be if you can get there.

In the end, I would have re-shot at least two or three moments in the film that should have been re-shot to “get it right.” Though maybe in the grand scheme of things it didn’t matter. There is much to like here with its echoes of Greek tragedy and other classic moments in literature. (The scene in the bedroom felt eerily close to the problem Raskalnikov encountered in Crime & Punishment, undoubtedly intentional.)

The film has sensuousness as a theme with almost none of the usual Hollywood demonstrativeness. It hints, rather than reveals.

The title for the film comes from the name of a boat which the brothers buy. The name Cassandra is taken from mythical Greek tragedy. Cassandra was loved by Apollo, but ended up being cursed by him when she did not return his love. Her gift of being able to foresee the future was forever a source of pain and frustration for her. The viewer of this film, like Cassandra, knows from the first that things will turn out bad, but can do nothing to stop it.

As is often the case, “The best laid plans of mice and men do often go awry.” Or to quote a maxim of my own, “We tend to get what we want, but we usually get more than we bargained for.”